TV Alert: "In Their Own Words" Jim Henson Special on PBS Tuesday September 15, 2015

Lastly, I enjoyed that we got a small Behind the Scenes look at Season 46 of SS- too bad Big Bird and Oscar (and Caroll) weren't there; we could have easily gotten all 6 of the core characters together. Oh well.

Click to expand...

Actually, that was from the "Count on Elmo" DVD. Big Bird didn't appear at all in it, and Oscar was only in the "Count Tribute" street story.

I managed to sneak past the region barrier on the online episode (don't ask me how) and watched it about an hour ago. While it didn't have anything we didn't know, I still appreciated how tastefully the documentary was constructed.

I particularly loved Frank describing his friendship with Jim. It really made me smile and the quote,"For old friends who've just met" just resonated so well.

My only problem was that there was no mention of Richard or Jerry. And at the very end, despite the fact that they talk about deciding to keep Kermit alive AND they show the finale of 'The Muppets Celebrate Jim Henson' they don't mention Steve at all. It would have taken them two more seconds to do so. It just seemed weird from my perspective.

My only problem was that there was no mention of Richard or Jerry. And at the very end, despite the fact that they talk about deciding to keep Kermit alive AND they show the finale of 'The Muppets Celebrate Jim Henson' they don't mention Steve at all. It would have taken them two more seconds to do so. It just seemed weird from my perspective.

Click to expand...

Yeah. I've noticed that as well. Maybe they'll do a follow-up on this where they talk about Steve as Kermit and post-Henson projects. Maybe a long shot, but "It's worth a try, Rizzo."

I liked the special very much, but I do think they should've mentioned Steve being a replacement for Kermit's voice and like someone said earlier, no mention of Jerry Nelson or Richard. No mention of the Jim Henson Hour either, I think they should've talked about it because it was near the end of Jim's life and because of the problems the show faced.

I was hoping they'd cover post-Jim projects especially Muppet Christmas Carol since there was a dedication to his memory as well as Richard's.

There's a number of Jim's work that wasn't mentioned in the special: they touched on Jim's experimental period, but they really only talked about TIME PIECE, while THE CUBE was only mentioned in passing, and YOUTH '68 wasn't mentioned at all. Likewise, THE MUPPET MUSICIANS OF BREMEN got a brief mention as if it were a one-off special, and not part of the discontinued TALES FROM MUPPETLAND series (but then again, MMOB seems to get more attention in general than either HEY, CINDERELLA! or THE FROG PRINCE). Other specials weren't mentioned, like THE CHRISTMAS TOY or MUPPET FAMILY CHRISTMAS, and I think both THE FANTASTIC MISS PIGGY SHOW and THE MUPPETS: A CELEBRATION OF 30 YEARS only had brief clips whizzing by. I think they pretty much touched on his more significant projects, otherwise, they wouldn't have been able to fit everything in an hour-long documentary.

It would be impossible to mention everything Jim did in a one hour show. I'm sure they had to make tough decisions as to what to include and what to leave out. And given the time limits I'm not sure why they would mention Steve or Richard or Jerry. Remember, it was a look back at Jim Henson's life, not a look back at the history of the Muppets. It would have been nice to do a longer special so they could have included others but I'm sure they did what they could given the 1 hour slot.

In the end credits, it lists pretty much every production owned by Disney that gets a clip included, but it incorrectly lists Henson's Place among them.

For years, I thought that credits for clips were to acknowledge the copyright owners/distributors, then I wondered if they were just acknowledging who supplied the clips (as I had some some things that list the wrong company - at least wrong currently company - for the clips), but then if that's the case, wouldn't the Henson archives have supplied the clips (since it's been said that Disney doens't archive acquired properties, so Henson still has all the old master tapes in storage)?

I was hoping that the PBS special would be a bit more detailed than it was (but, there's only so much you can squeeze in an hour). However, I thought that it worked well for the people who aren't obsessed fans . My family has put up with my 'everything Henson' obsession for years, but they don't really know anything about Jim aside from Kermit. The special went into enough detail to make them curious, but not so much detail to scare them away.

Anyway, I feel like this documentary was sort of like a hybrid between the great Word of Jim Henson and the rushed CNN People Profiles special (to be fair, the CNN one is the only Jim Henson documentary that did not initially air on public television, and therefore the only one that had commercial interruptions).

A nice tribute. Seems like they got all the facts straight. Included enough commentary to provide a good picture of Jim Henson, in addition to his own words. I especially enjoyed the comments by his family members and the Frank Oz description of a more complex person with more dimension than we often try to use to label people.

They talked about So many Things about Jim Henson, I never really knew about.

Click to expand...

Same here. It was amazing to learn how Jim Henson broke boundaries for many puppeteers by creating Muppets. Jim Henson really showed the world he could really bring a puppet to life and make it look real. It also showed how his Muppets make Sesame Street very successful then they became the core part of the entire show. With "The Muppet Show" becoming the most successful show ever. I did learn about his relationship with Jane Henson and the Disney deal in 1989. I even cried a little while watching it at the end of the documentary. Jim Henson is idol and he will always be that in my heart.